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1 HEALTH CARE AT THE CROSSROADS: Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future With support from Aramark

2 Copyright 2008 by The Joint Commission. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher. Request for permission to reprint:

3 HEALTH CARE AT THE CROSSROADS: GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE HOSPITAL OF THE FUTURE

4 Joint Commission Public Policy Initiative This white paper emanates from The Joint Commission s Public Policy Initiative. Launched in 2001, this initiative seeks to address broad issues relating to the provision of safe, high-quality health care and, indeed, the health of the American people. These are issues that demand the attention and engagement of multiple publics if successful resolution is to be achieved. For each of the identified public policy issues that it has addressed, The Joint Commission already has relevant state-of-the-art standards in place. However, simple application of these standards, and other one-dimensional efforts, will leave this country far short of its health care goals and objectives. Thus, this paper does not describe new Joint Commission requirements for health care organizations, nor even suggest that new requirements will be forthcoming in the future. Rather, The Joint Commission has devised a public policy action plan that involves the gathering of information and multiple perspectives on the issue; formulation of comprehensive solutions; and assignment of accountabilities for these solutions. The execution of this plan includes the convening of roundtable discussions and national symposia, the issuance of this white paper, and active pursuit of the suggested recommendations. 4

5 Table of Contents Preamble Introduction Part I. Economic Implications for the Hospital of the Future The High Cost of Doing Business More Red Than Rosy Beyond Borders The Home Team Part II. Technology for the Provision of Care More Than the Building Mighty I.T Buy or Beware Part III. Achievement of Patient-Centered Care The Main Point Nothing Without Me Momentum Custom and Culture Serving the Underserved On The Rise Patient-Centered Transformation Part IV. The Staffing Challenge Wide and Deep A Global Predicament Stops and Starts High Touch, High Tech A Changing of the Guard Team-Based Care Part V. Design of the Physical Environment Safe by Design Flat World Phenomena Standardized Flexibility Place of Work Being Green Conclusion Acknowledgements End Notes

6 Preamble The concept of the hospital has evolved over the centuries. In his history of the U.S. hospital system, Charles Rosenberg writes that in the 18th century, the last place any respectable person would want to find themselves was in an almshouse the predecessor to the hospital. 1 Almshouses housed the indigent, orphaned, mildly criminal, and the sick for whom there was no other place to go. Overcrowded, chaotic, filthy and teeming with those considered to be depraved, almshouses provided unwelcome company for respectable citizens who were alone, ill and down on their luck. For this reason, Benjamin Franklin agreed to cofound the Pennsylvania Hospital in 1752, the nation s first hospital, to replace almshouses in serving the poor and deserved. 2 For the next hundred years, even as hospitals became closely aligned with medical education, they continued to mainly serve the poor and those desperately ill who could not avoid what was widely considered to be medical experimentation conducted in hospitals. 3 It was not until after the Civil War when military medical care sped advances in clinical techniques as well as methods for safely treating patients in high volume -- that hospitals began to resemble modern-day hospitals. 4 By the late 19th century, hospitals were becoming part of the fabric of their communities and sources of civic pride. 5 Hospitals were large institutional buildings by this time, which helped to foster the growing perception that hospitals were cold and impersonal places to receive care. Indeed, during the Progressive Era ( ), critics warned that hospitals had an increasing concern with acute ailments and a parallel neglect of the aged, of chronic illness, of the convalescent, of the simply routine. 6 They warned of a socially insensitive and economically dysfunctional obsession with inpatient care at the expense of community-oriented care. 7 An understanding of the patient s social and family environment, these critics contended, was necessary to fully understand the cause of illness and to prescribe its remedy. 8 The overarching sentiment of the time was that medicine had to be brought out of the hospital, into the community, and into the home to the extent possible. 9 A century later, contemporary hospitals find themselves with similar challenges as well as opportunities. Long since their origination, hospitals today are leaders in the development and delivery of care to patients. Indeed, hospitals are the stewards of health professional education and are actively engaged in promoting better health in their communities. Hospitals, which pool health care talent from across all professional disciplines, are significant progenitors of major clinical innovations that save the lives of so many. While there is much variation in the size and scope of hospitals, all hospitals have the opportunity to lead in the improvement of health care delivery so that the right care is delivered in the right place at the right time for every patient. The call for hospitals from a century ago echoes today. The rise in the number of patients who are aged and those who are chronically ill, challenge hospitals to extend the parameters of hospital-based care from inside the medical center, to the community and into the home. 6

7 Introduction Human lives weigh in the balance every day in hospitals. For hospital patients and their families, the hospital experience is often a central point in their life where their child was born, their beloved died, where they received life-saving treatment, rejuvenating therapy or care to overcome an episode of illness. The hospital is the setting of oft-told tales among friends and family through the generations. It is no wonder that hospitals are often used to depict human drama and even comedy -- for popular consumption across the panorama of entertainment media. In reality, hospitals are the setting where cutting-edge medical advances relieve suffering, and bring healing and even new life for those whom, even a few short years ago, there would be little hope. Featherweight babies, born eight weeks prematurely can now survive and even thrive. Minimally invasive surgeries allow patients to heal quickly with less risk of complication, and speed their journey home. The evolving science of organ transplantation brings a second shot at life for an increasing number of people whose lives would otherwise be foreshortened. In addition to their impact on human life, hospitals are a major driver of the U.S. economy. The hospital industry is the second largest private-sector employer in the U.S. and contributes nearly $2 trillion of economic activity. 10 In many small communities across the country, the local hospital is the largest employer and most valuable economic asset. Consumer attitude toward hospitals waxes and wanes, seemingly with some dependence on hospital news that makes headlines, 11 such as traumatic medical errors, rampant hospital-acquired infection, and unscrupulous billing practices. There is no doubt that hospitals face greater scrutiny over the issues that can erode public trust. In order to secure the public s trust, hospitals will need to become highly reliable -- ensuring patients safety, providing clinically effective care, and embodying the ethical ideal that has long been the expectation of the public. Hospitals will have to meet the high expectations of the public and all stakeholders in an increasingly challenging environment. There are many issues with which hospitals must now contend. These include escalating health care costs that are no longer publicly or politically tenable, changing trends in reimbursement for services, demands for transparency of cost and quality data, and workforce shortages. At the same time, the conditions and care needs of hospitalized patients are more complex. The rise in patients with chronic illness, older age adults, and medical interventions and therapies, are already influencing hospitals today and that influence will deepen well into the future. The rise in patients with chronic illness, older age adults, and medical interventions and therapies, are already influencing hospitals today and that influence will deepen well into the future. 7

8 The importance of hospital-based care will not diminish in the future. However, changes in the social and economic environments in which hospitals operate, as well as medical and technological progress require hospitals to be equally transformative as the future unfolds. There has been a hospital building boom underway fueled by increasing demand for health care services and increasingly obsolete hospital plants. Though economic conditions are expected to slow its pace, the continuing investment in hospital construction offers the opportunity to remake the hospital -- its design, culture and practices to better meet the needs of patients and families and the aspirations of those that provide their care. But, unless there are principles to guide the development of the hospital of the future, hospitals may simply freeze into place the status quo of today. In order to identify these principles, The Joint Commission appointed an expert Roundtable panel comprising hospital administrative and clinical leaders, as well as experts in technology, health care economics, hospital design and patient safety. The Roundtable was charged to evaluate the current health care environment and identify the elements of the future hospital that will position it to play an appropriate role or roles in meeting the needs of patients and publics. Among specific issues that were addressed by the Roundtable were socio-economic trends, technology, the physical environment of care, patient-centered care values, ongoing staffing challenges, and the global confluence of these issues and their impact on the hospital of the future. This white paper represents the culmination of the Roundtable s discussions. The proposed principles for guiding future hospital development are summarized below. Principles to Support Economic Viability: Encourage the alignment of hospital measurement and payment systems to meet quality and efficiency-related goals Apply process improvement tools to improve efficiency and reduce costs Pursue coverage options to ensure patient access to, and affordability of, health care services Address the disequilibrium between the burdens of general acute hospitals and specialty hospitals in fulfilling the social mission for health care delivery Principles to Guide Technology Adoption: Establish the business case and sustainable funding sources to support the widespread adoption of health information technology Redesign business and care processes in tandem with health information technology to ensure benefit accrual Use digital technology to support patientcentered hospital care and extend that care beyond the hospital walls Establish reliable authorities to provide technology assessment and investment guidance for hospitals Adopt technologies that are labor-saving and integrative across the hospital 8

9 Principles to Guide Achievement of Patient- Centered Care: Make adoption of patient-centered care values a priority for improving patient safety and patient and staff satisfaction Incorporate patient-centered care principles into the activities of hospital oversight bodies and transparency initiatives Address barriers to patient and family engagement, such as low health literacy and personal and cultural preferences Eliminate disparities in the quality of care for minorities, the poor, the aged and the mentally ill Improve the quality of care for the chronically ill through adoption of care models that encourage coordinated, multi-disciplinary care Use robust process improvement tools to improve quality and safety, and support achievement of patient-centered care Principles to Address the Staffing Challenge: Address the maldistribution of health care workers across the globe by instilling fair migration and compensation policies for affected countries Expand health professional education and training capacity to accommodate the growing demand for health care workers Create work place cultures that can attract and retain health care workers Support the development of health professional knowledge and skills required to care for patients in an increasingly complex environment Educate health professionals to deliver teambased care and promote teamwork in the hospital environment Develop the competence of health professionals to care for geriatric patients Principles to Guide Design: Incorporate evidence-based design principles that improve patient safety, including single rooms, decentralized nursing stations and noise-reducing materials, in hospital construction Address high-level priorities, such as infection control and emergency preparedness, in hospital design and construction Include clinicians, other staff, patients and families in the design process to maximize opportunities to improve staff work flow and patient safety, and create patient-centered environments Design flexibility into the building to allow for better adaption to the rapid cycle of innovation in medicine and technology Incorporate green principles in hospital design and construction 9

10 I. Economic Implications for the Hospital of the Future The High Cost of Doing Business In 2007, the national expenditure on health care was over $2.2 trillion, or $7,500 per U.S. resident. 12 Health care spending accounts for 16.2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). More than onethird of national health spending is for hospital care, compared to approximately 20 percent for physician services and 10 percent for pharmaceuticals. 13 While health care costs are rising globally, in no country are costs rising at the high rate of those of the U.S. Overall, U.S. per capita health care spending is more than 50 percent higher than any other country. 14 Among the most significant reasons for this contrast are higher income and higher medical prices in the U.S. 15 Indeed, the U.S. pays much higher prices for pharmaceuticals, hospital stays and physician visits. 16 For its level of investment, the U.S. does not receive a more favorable rate of return as far as higher quality care, patient satisfaction or population health status compared to other industrialized nations. 17 Higher health care costs that are borne by health care purchasers, payers, and consumers are becoming untenable. As a result, health care purchasers are focusing on health benefit cost containment strategies, mainly by shifting more of the cost burden to employees. Job-based health insurance premiums rose 10-times faster than incomes from 2001 to 2005, according to a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. 18 The amount employees paid for family coverage rose 30 percent, while their incomes rose by three percent. Fewer private-sector businesses offer coverage (-30,000) and as a result, 4.1 million fewer employees are working in private-sector jobs that offer health insurance. Overall, 2.4 million fewer people have private health insurance, a drop of six percent. Year to year more people are uninsured. Today, that figure stands at approximately 47 million people. Meanwhile, public health insurance programs are experiencing the squeeze of the current economic scenario. High health care costs, a poorly performing U.S. economy, diminished tax revenue, a booming Medicare-eligible generation, as well as growing ranks of uninsured are factors in the expected insolvency of the Medicare program by More Red Than Rosy While many hospitals are today enjoying relative prosperity in one survey, hospital systems reported an increase in patient revenues of nearly 8.5 percent in 2007 from the previous year the conditions upon which these gains are made are expected to dramatically change in the coming years. And, while some hospitals experience healthy profit margins, an uncomfortable number of hospitals continue to be unprofitable. There is a growing gap between have and have-not hospitals that may very well widen as the future unfolds. 10

11 Hospitals are not invulnerable to current economic conditions. While health care has long been thought to be recession-proof because of an endless supply of sick patients and reliance on government payment, health care organizations are as vulnerable to the tightened credit market as any industry. According to a report in Modern Healthcare, even before the economy started to falter this year, hospital and health system bond rating downgrades were on the upswing, while upgrades were on the downswing. In fact, about 50 percent of shortterm, acute-care hospitals are either insolvent or near insolvency, according to a recent report from Alvarez & Marshal Healthcare Industry Group. 21 Financial issues are mainly arising from the instability of funding sources, including government subsidies and charitable contributions. 22 Moreover, hospital capital expenses are underfunded by up to $20 billion. 23 By and large, many hospitals are able to achieve a positive bottom-line through cost-shifting subsidizing services that do not cover costs with more favorable remunerative services. For treating Medicare patients, hospitals receive $.91 of every dollar expended; for Medicaid patients they receive $.86 per dollar. 24 Uncompensated care accounts for approximately six percent of hospital costs on average in 2006 that amounted to $30 billion. 25 Yet, from private payers, hospitals receive $1.22 for every dollar spent. 26 Hospitals depend on having robust numbers of privately insured patients in order to be able to treat the under- and uninsured and still remain in the black. employer-sponsored insurance and unabated growth in the numbers of uninsured, hospitals can expect more Medicaid patients and uncompensated care. In essence, there will be more competition for the fewer patients to whom costs may be shifted. There is another wrinkle in the cross-subsidy fabric. In order to address escalating health care costs, stakeholders are demanding transparency of the costs and quality of care. For its part, the federal government has been taking steps to encourage price and quality transparency as one way to spur competition and encourage value-based health care purchasing decisions. An August 2006 Executive Order requires federal agencies that administer or sponsor health programs to make information available to consumers on the quality and costs of services provided by doctors and hospitals. The Executive Order also requires agencies and their contractors to promote the use of interoperable health care information technology products so that data can easily be shared. The Order further requires federal agencies to offer health insurance programs that reward consumers who choose health care providers based on value and quality. This scenario will be increasingly difficult to sustain. With the demographic trend pointing to a growing elderly population, hospitals can expect to have more Medicare patients. Absent any major health reform, with the continuing decline in 11

12 Based on the Executive Order, the Health and Human Services Secretary launched the Value- Driven Health Care Initiative, the agenda for which includes four cornerstones transparency of quality information, transparency of pricing information, promotion of health information technology adoption, and creation of incentive mechanisms to promote quality and efficiency. Transparency of pricing will likely foster what is now absent in health care a price-sensitive consumer. While it is unclear how hospital pricing and all of its irrational complexity will be translated for consumer understanding, the net effect may be a flattening of health care pricing, and diminished opportunity for cross-subsidization to cover money-losing procedures and patients. Transparency in both price and quality may, however, boost the market position of specialty hospitals. Specialty hospitals act as focused factories, serving a subset of patients to perform specific procedures, such as cardiac care and orthopedic surgery. As such, they focus on delivering well-paying services to an insured pool of patients. Without departments such as emergency, trauma and intensive care, specialty hospitals are free of the regulatory and social obligations that general hospitals are held to. And, with high margins, focused expertise and high volume, specialty hospitals can be very competitive on price and quality. The market and financial advantages of specialty hospitals have not gone unnoticed, and even spurred a moratorium on any new development for awhile. Now that the moratorium has been lifted, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) has proposed correcting inequalities by lowering the reimbursement rate for the diagnostic-related group (DRG) codes that attracted specialty hospital business in the first place. This could be an important leveler since surgery and procedure-related treatment has long been known to attract a higher financial reward than providing medical care, and has therefore created its own set of incentives. This action, though, will not require specialty hospitals to share in providing care that is solely for the public good. Further, it will lower the reimbursement rate that all hospitals receive for performing these same services and further erode future hospital revenue that provides coverage for mission-related services. In the meantime, hospitals are readying for no pay for preventable events. As of October 2008, Medicare no longer reimburses hospitals for a growing list of hospital-acquired conditions, such as surgical-site infection and pressure ulcers, as part of its Value-Based Purchasing Initiative. Private-sector payers are quickly following suit. CMS is also looking at ways to equalize payment by using hospital costs rather than charges to set rates. It recently began adjusting payment to better recognize severity of illness and the cost of treating Medicare patients by increasing payments for some services and decreasing payments for others. Fiscal pressures will also keep the pressure on future Medicare and Medicaid provider reimbursements, and it is expected that CMS will continue to seek more avenues to not pay for preventable conditions that occur in health care organizations. 12

13 Beyond Borders High health care costs and inadequate access to specialized care are fueling fast growth in medical tourism. Would-be patients in developed countries are traveling thousands of miles most often to India and Thailand -- to receive high-quality care at dramatically lower costs and with no wait. Medical tourism is now a multi-billion-dollar industry. In years past, a medical tourist was someone seeking services that were not covered by health plans, such as cosmetic surgery. Today, a medical tourist is as likely to be seeking full or partial joint replacement, cardiac surgery or even stem cell therapy. Typically, U.S. citizens that have gone abroad have either been uninsured or underinsured and therefore, price-sensitive to the cost of their needed surgeries. The profile of the U.S. medical tourist is changing, however, as selfinsured employers and third-party payers are beginning to add coverage for treatment received abroad as a means to lower their own costs. Rather than wait months or years for an elective surgery, patients in some European countries are crossing borders for more immediate care. As a result, some European Union (EU) countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK), are reimbursing patients for the cost of acute care received outside of their country of origin on a case-by-case basis. For some European countries, shortening waiting lists may mean exporting patients to elsewhere in the EU, or it may mean importing health care services to bolster the volume of services provided and quicken turnaround times. The phenomenon of the medical tourist seeking complex and necessary care for their well-being outside of their own health jurisdiction raises important concerns for the hospital of the future. On one hand, such medical tourism may represent an elaboration of an individual s right to choose. But, it may also exemplify the failure of a society to fulfill its social contract with its citizens. A global health care marketplace is an increasing competitive threat for U.S. hospitals. A new study from Deloitte finds that the number of patients leaving the U.S. for medical treatment is growing at a faster rate than the number coming for treatment. The study projects that U.S. health care providers will lose nearly $16 billion in revenue this year to outbound medical travel. 27 That figure is expected to grow to $68 billion by 2010, a 325 percent rise. 28 Hospitals depend on having robust numbers of privately insured patients in order to be able to treat the under- and uninsured and still remain in the black. This scenario will be increasingly difficult to sustain. 13

14 Hospitals are flattening for a variety of reasons in addition to globe-trekking patients. The outsourcing of services to offshore entities, such as for radiology, is another way in which hospitals are becoming more global and horizontally configured. But, there are domestic factors that are influencing the flattening of hospitals, as well. Specialty hospitals disaggregate hospital services that were once integral to the hospital. In response, hospitals are striking up partnerships with physicians in these ventures so that they can retain some share of the market. The Home Team Despite the impact of globalization and disaggregation, hospitals have a mission to fulfill to society. No new specialty hospitals or offshore services are being developed to serve the poor, elderly and under- or uninsured. With the coming squeeze on health care pricing and increased competition, hospitals will need to adapt. They will have to learn to do more with less by squeezing out inefficiencies in care delivery. Without the prospect of higher reimbursement rates, hospitals will have to reduce their costs in order to achieve equilibrium in the ratio of payments received to costs expended. There are some seemingly irrational health care expenditures, that on the surface, cry out for a more efficient approach. End-of-life care is an oftmentioned example. In the U.S., highest per capita health care expenditure occurs in the last months of life. Several other countries perform markedly better by this measure and spend less on care at the end of life. However, to do as they do is not as easy as it seems. Differences in social norms, laws, regulations and litigation trends are among the reasons why there are no easy answers to this complex problem. The national focus on health care cost containment strategies and increasingly unstable sources of funding are providing strong influence on hospitals to drive out waste and inefficiencies. Hospitals are increasingly relying on quality improvement tools such as Lean and Six Sigma to create efficient, high-quality care processes. In addition to improved patient safety and higher quality, many organizations are experiencing cost savings through these efforts. For whom these costs are saved remains an issue. Many of the savings, such as those derived from processes that reduce utilization of higher cost services, accrue to health care payers and are revenue losers for hospitals. A realigned and rational payment structure that provides incentives for waste reduction must accompany efforts aimed at creating an efficient and equally effective hospital industry. New payment schemes, such as pay-for-performance, are providing hospitals with incentive to focus on specific priorities and maximize quality related to the various measures these programs track. These programs will increasingly focus on creating efficiencies in care delivery. But, more alignment of economic incentives with quality goals such as improved care for the chronically ill -- is needed. The key challenge for the hospital of the future is to be able to fulfill its social mission in an environment of constrained federal payment while also investing in new technologies and capital improvements. 14

15 Principles to Support the Economic Viability of the Hospital of the Future: Encourage the alignment of hospital measurement and payment systems to meet quality and efficiency-related goals Apply process improvement tools to improve efficiency and reduce costs Pursue coverage options to ensure patient access to, and affordability of, health care services Address the disequilibrium between the burdens of general acute hospitals and specialty hospitals in fulfilling the social mission for health care delivery For More Information on Hospital Economics: American Hospital Association, Health Care Financial Management Association, Center for Studying Health System Change, 15

16 II. Technology for the Provision of Care More Than the Building no matter what your profession doctor, lawyer, architect, accountant -- you better be good at the touchy-feely service stuff, because anything that can be digitized can be outsourced to either the smartest or the cheapest producer, or both... Everyone has to focus on what exactly is their value-add. -- from The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman With digital technology, radiologists in Bangalore, India do not have to come to the U.S. to practice, U.S. radiology films can go to them. Even more profoundly, digital technology is changing the locus of care delivery and allowing for more care -- care that may fall under the umbrella of the hospital -- to occur outside of the hospital s walls. monitoring technologies enable disease management questions and objective data for instance, blood glucose levels of a diabetic patient to be uploaded to their Electronic Health Record (EHR) daily. Care coordinators, who are usually nurses and social workers, use these data to prioritize who among their patients needs active care management. CCHT enables a single care coordinator to support a caseload of between 120 and 150 patients depending on case mix. In selected patients, videoconferencing capabilities even allow for virtual physician office visits in the home, which is especially beneficial for patients living in remote areas. In the U.S., the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is on the cutting edge of using digital technology to better meet the needs of a growing number of military veterans, both those who are reaching their senior years and those newly returned from current conflicts. The VA s national Care Coordination Home Telehealth (CCHT) Program was first implemented in 2004 to bring about a transition of institutionally based care and chronic care management from hospitals and clinics to patients own homes when indicated and appropriate. Telehealth applications combined with disease management methods and a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) support VA care coordinators to remotely monitor patients and thereby enhance and extend care and management. This application of technology is not intended to replace the high-touch aspect of care delivery. Because of the heavy emphasis on disease management and vital sign monitoring, CCHT helps to reduce disease complications, and allows patients and caregivers to recognize sooner when a doctor s visit or a hospital admission may be necessary. Currently, the CCHT program supports the care of 33,883 patients in their own homes. Outcomes data from a cohort of 17,025 patients showed a 20 percent reduction in hospital admissions and a 25 percent reduction in hospital bed days of care. 29 The emphasis of CCHT is on patient self-management and providing a program of care, rather than the traditional episodic approach to care. Remote 16

17 The efficiencies and quality improvements gained through the VA s CCHT program are helping the VA to serve more patients and change the location of care in accordance with patient preferences. Veteran patients receiving CCHT care have a mean satisfaction score of 86 percent. 30 CCHT is part of a larger transition in the location of care for patients that is making care more accessible and convenient for veteran patients. In 1995, the VA system had 50,000 hospital beds; today it has 18,000 with the addition of over 1,000 sites of care in local communities that provide primary and ambulatory care. In the intervening period, the VA has become markedly more efficient with a relatively modest increase in clinical staffing, but a dramatic rise in the number of patients served increasing from 2.5 million to 5 million in the same time frame. Like its counterparts in the non-federal health system, the VA has to do more with less. The migration of care from the hospital bed and physician office to the home that is allowed through technology invites the redefinition of the hospital. Rather than being defined by its number of beds, the value-add of the hospital of the future may be its intellectual property. A hospital will be able to lend its expertise to the care of a patient located in a vastly different place than where its facility is located. As an integrated, single-payer system, standardization and innovation is perhaps easier to achieve in the VA system than in hospitals and other health care providers that operate in a more fragmented environment. Implementation of new models of care like the CCHT involve changes in clinical practice, technology infrastructure and business processes. Given the underlying need to care for greater numbers of patients with chronic disease, telehealth and remote patient monitoring could have the same evolutionary impact outside of the VA as it has had within. Mighty I.T. At the core of the VA s Care Coordination Program is a comprehensive electronic health record system that is in standard use across VA health delivery sites, including remotely delivered care in the home. In fact, the VA has the largest enterprisewide health information system in the U.S. Outside of the VA, only approximately 11 percent of nonfederal hospitals 31 and 12 percent of physician practices 32 have implemented comprehensive electronic health records. Rather than being defined by its number of beds, the value-add of the hospital of the future may be its intellectual property. 17

18 Many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Denmark, Australia and Canada have moved ahead of the U.S. in deploying health information technology. In fact, the U.S. lags a dozen years behind other industrialized countries in health information technology (HIT) adoption. 33 In all of the countries that have implemented national HIT programs, the costs have been paid by the government and health insurers, and not by the health care providers. 34 These countries have viewed their investment in HIT as a public good, the benefits of which reduced costs and improved quality -- will mainly accrue to health care payers and patients. 35 Implementation challenges in these countries are also far easier to overcome given their relatively simple payer structures and centralized decision-making capacity as compared to the U.S. With fewer payers and in some cases, such as in the U.K., centralized vendor selection -- the ability to standardize nomenclature and build an interoperable platform is made easier. In the U.S., attempts by payers, coalitions and oversight bodies to influence the rate of adoption of HIT have had mixed results. Following the IOM s release of To Err is Human in 1999, the Leapfrog Group a consortium of large employers established its first leaps in patient safety for hospitals serving their employees to meet. Among this first set of standards was the requirement that hospitals implement computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems. Although this requirement came in 2000, still only about five percent of all U.S. hospitals have a CPOE system. 36 Clearly, this leap has fallen short. Leapfrog attributes this to the sheer cost of implementing CPOE and resistance by physicians. 37 For its part in advancing the adoption of electronic health records, the federal government created the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ONC s primary purpose is to coordinate the development of standards that will allow for interoperability between systems, and a national health information network through which health information can be exchanged. 38 In 2005, HHS created the American Health Information Community (AHIC). This federal advisory committee includes representatives from both the private and public sectors and is charged to provide recommendations to HHS on making health records digital and interoperable, as well as capable of protecting the privacy of patient information. HHS is now in the process of transitioning the AHIC to a successor organization under funding to the Brookings Institution and LMI Consulting. It is envisioned that the AHIC-2 will not start from whole cloth, but will learn from and enhance the work of the existing AHIC s efforts to promote electronic interchange of information. AHIC-2 is expected to be even more inclusive than AHIC and may also involve some regional loci for its work. 18

19 In the meantime, HHS has launched demonstration projects through which it provides financial incentives for health care practitioners to use HIT. The Medicare Care Management Demonstration, in part, provides additional payment to physicians who use an EHR certified by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT) to electronically submit performance data on 26 measures. The most recent demonstration project allows CMS to make bonus payments to small physician practices that use a certified EHR for clinical documentation and e-prescribing. Payments are determined based on the practices performance on specific quality measures. It may be that many hospitals still need to be convinced of the value of HIT. While there is a strong evidence base supporting claims that such HIT systems yield significant benefit for the safety and quality of health care, there has been insufficient research conducted to support the return on investment from HIT. 39 And, the level of required investment can be substantial. Initial implementation costs may range from several hundred thousand dollars for initial implementation in a physician office to millions in a community hospital to tens of millions of dollars in an academic medical center. Annual maintenance of the systems can cost tens of thousands to several million dollars. Many are also wary of the work flow disruptions that a full-scale IT implementation can cause. Enhancing work flow and care process redesign needs to be part and parcel of the implementation plan. Failure to do so can serve to codify already broken or defective care processes. Involving clinical staff who will be using the technology at the patient s bedside, in the office, pharmacy, lab and home in its development and providing followon training are key to its success. Issues of interoperability remain generally unsolved as of today. While health care policymakers and standards bodies hammer out solutions for achieving interoperability of systems that will allow for data sharing between separate entities, many health care providers see this as a reason to wait to invest in HIT. Unsolved issues around data privacy and fear of system obsolescence further fuel their hesitancy. In the meantime, lack of interoperability between HIT systems and medical devices that have an HIT component such as hospital beds that take readings of vital signs but do not integrate with the EHR slow the workflow of care providers. Indeed, nurses are often the integrators of patient information between HIT systems. As new technologies are added to the workplace, it is essential that they be labor-saving in order to conserve already stretched professional resources. Buy or Beware With a well-funded biotechnology industry, new technologies are constantly being created with the hope of creating a new disease market or need. This constant barrage of technology purchasing decisions may be difficult to navigate since any new purchase creates an opportunity to increase costs and waste -- in the system. Adding certain new technologies into the health care work place can be very disruptive to work flow and exacerbate inefficiencies. Technologies that are not integrative with other technologies add very little value to the patient s care and the health care worker s practice. 19

20 With a plethora of cutting-edge information and clinical technology purchasing decisions to be made under a tight budget, health care professionals could use an objective authority to help guide their value-based investments. From , the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) provided Congress with objective analysis of contemporary issues involving science and technology. OTA reports were highly authoritative and well respected. 40 Similar functions in other countries were even modeled after the OTA. 41 But, these reports were sometimes unpopular, especially when their conclusions ran counter to the interests of affected industries. The OTA lost its funding in The loss of the OTA has left a void. In 2004, a new bill to re-establish some of the capabilities of the OTA was defeated; however, many feel that Congress would benefit from expert analyses of many of the complex scientific and technological issues that are often a source of debate. Though there are private-sector sources for information to support technology decision-making, the OTA served as a public source for much-needed information. Principles to Guide Technology Adoption for the Hospital of the Future: Establish the business case and sustainable funding sources to support the widespread adoption of health information technology Redesign business and care processes in tandem with health information technology to ensure benefit accrual Use digital technology to support patientcentered hospital care and extend that care beyond the hospital walls Establish reliable authorities to provide technology assessment and investment guidance for hospitals Adopt technologies that are labor-saving and integrative across the hospital For More Information on Hospital-related Technology: Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, American Medical Informatics Association, Health Information Management Systems Society, Health Technology Center, 20

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